CreoLa - Redwood Shores - TravBuddy

The Redwood Shores corporate lunch crowd can be maddening sometimes. For lunch, everyone usually end up at the Oracle cafeteria, or the Nob Hill Foods shopping center which is filled with overpriced restaurants serving food ranging from dissapointing to awful (I'm looking at you, Mango Bay).

Meanwhile, right next door in slummy San Carlos, there are several absolutely delicious options that everyone seems to overlook because its literally on the wrong side of the CalTrain tracks. Good food in a strip mall in San Carlos?! you ask. It's true... case in point -- CreoLa, a moderately priced New Orleans style bistro, which hasn't dissapointed me yet.

CreoLa's exterior is pretty much the same as the truck stop diner down the street, but inside, nice white tablecloths and well dressed young waiters with hipster hair ensure that you are not, in fact, at the Omelette House.

The menu includes New Orleans staples such as jambalaya, po' boys and red beans and rice, as well as fancier fare like wasabbi crusted chicken, oysters en brochette, catfish and even alligator. Everything I've had here is really good -- the etouffee, the turtle soup, the ceasar salad with hush puppies and absolutely delicious cajun velvet cake.

My only negative comment is that the soup is really overpriced -- $8 for a small cup -- making a light lunch of soup and salad just as expensive as a big plate.